Products · Pattern or everyday thing
Web media playback
Raised as a usability problem by 19 people on Hacker News over 18 years (2009–2026), in 19 threads.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads this year.
No issue was raised by at least 3 people in 3 threads in the last 5 years.
Every issue, all time, most people first
Videos with sound autoplay mid-article and are hard to stopUnreviewed
20092026- Videos are slow to start, autoplay related videos, and force fullscreen restarts, causing missed content2020-03-27
- Videos with sound auto-play halfway down articles and are hard to turn off2017-03-15
- Videos or audio start playing unannounced in background tabs, making them hard to find2009-01-31
Unreviewed issues were grouped by machine: Claude Haiku labelled each comment as a usability complaint, named what it's about and summed up the problem in a line, and a small model grouped similar problems. Nobody has checked them by hand. Expect mistakes.
The newest 19 complaints
- Pinch to zoom enlarges the whole webpage instead of going fullscreen on iOS2026-01-24
- Controls hide unless hovered, obscuring content and making quick repeated actions difficult2024-02-02
- Controls overlay video and auto-hide, making skipping and checking time painful2022-12-21
- Media on old web was nearly unusable, and the web was often very slow2022-07-03
- Must open network tab to save videos; can't right-click to copy them2020-05-17
- Videos are slow to start, autoplay related videos, and force fullscreen restarts, causing missed content2020-03-27
- Opening a saved playlist in the web player takes several hidden steps2018-06-05
- Player keys often malfunction, volume slider jumps around, playback fails to resume2018-04-16
- Information is buried in the last part of long videos, so readers can't scan quickly2017-11-02
- Morse audio playback breaks when switching tabs due to timer throttling2017-03-16
- Videos with sound auto-play halfway down articles and are hard to turn off2017-03-15
- Web video players are inconsistent and lack good keyboard-driven controls2016-06-18
- Alt or Ctrl hotkeys lock notes in Firefox, so ctrl+w must be avoided2016-03-04
- Pause also stops the download, and the pause button often does nothing while buffering2016-02-10
- Pressing space scrolls the page when the game or player isn't focused2014-03-22
- Audio players are so tiny they are nearly invisible, hard to find and operate2013-12-22
- Mute control's label shows state, not action, so it's confusing which is which2013-01-13
- Custom video player's seek bar is too sensitive and hard to use2012-03-21
- Videos or audio start playing unannounced in background tabs, making them hard to find2009-01-31